MORGAN HEBARD 285 



Other than the type, the three males are designated para- 

 types. The series was collected in a field of the sun-dried yellow 

 grass which is characteristic of the Coast Ranges of California. 

 The species was apparently numerous, the few specimens being 

 secured during a brief train stop. 



Melanoplus microtatus new species (Plate XXX, figs. 7 and 8.) 

 1909. Melanoplus sonomaensis Rehn and Hebard (not of Caudell, 1906), 



Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1909, p. 468. [d\ 9 ; Santa Cruz, California.] 



This species belongs to the Marginatus Group and to that 

 section including the forms very closely related to M. gracilipes 

 Scudder. 



Nearest relationship is with M. nanus Scudder, to which species 

 close affinity is shown, though not to the degree found in M. 

 sonomaensis Caudell. The insect differs from nanus in the aver- 

 age smaller size, 50 the slightly but distinctly more slender form 

 and, in the male sex, in the distinctive form of the cerci and the 

 contour of the supra-anal plate. 



Females of these species are almost inseparable. In the pres- 

 ent very large series of microtatus, it is noted, however, that all 

 are slightly but appreciably more slender, and that the large 

 majority are of smaller size. The tegmina also average more 

 approximate, but show so wide a range of variation in this 

 feature, as well as in size and in length in proportion to width, 

 that this can not be used safely as a character for individual 

 determinations. 



Type. — d 71 ; Del Monte, Monterey County, California. August 

 20, 1909. (M. Hebard.) [Hebard Collection, Type no. 505.] 



Size very small, smallest of the genus ; form slender, slightly but appreciably 

 more slender than in nanus. Head much as in nanus; fastigio-facial angle 

 slightly more produced than in gracilipes, as in hesperus here described, nanus 

 and sonomaensis; frontal costa as in nanus, no wider than in huporeus here 

 described, but showing only slight concavity toward median ocellus, as in all 

 the species here referred to except huporeus. Eye slightly over twice as long as 

 infra-ocular sulcus. Pronotum elongate, disk of almost equal width through- 

 out, median carina well defined and percurrent, lateral carinae distinct though 

 weakly defined, much as in hesperus, caudal margin of disk broadly obtuse- 

 angulate produced, as in hesperus. Prosternal spine as in hesperus. Tegmina 

 considerably shorter than pronotum, almost attingent, 51 with apex rather 



50 This is the smallest species of the genus Melanoplus known. The smallest 

 known examples of M. puer (Scudder) show a lesser length, but have a consid- 

 erably greater body bulk. 



51 Varying to slightly overlapping in the series of males. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XLV. 



